The Bridges of Medieval England:
Transport and Society 400-1800

David Harrison

Part I of The Bridges of Medieval England is a survey of bridges,
looking at their numbers and locations and when they were built or
rebuilt. Harrison looks in detail at a few routes and stretches of
river on which there is good evidence about bridges.

The "Dark Ages" saw a reversion to fords, and new bridges were often built
on their sites rather than on the locations of earlier Roman bridges.

"A road map of the eighteenth or even the early twentieth
century may provide a more accurate picture of the routes of
late Anglo-Saxon England than the Roman roads which are usually
depicted."

There was major investment in transport in the two centuries after
the Norman Conquest, with bridges among the principal foci of a new
road system.

"Not only it is certain that a high proportion of bridges existed
by 1350, but there is good reason to suppose that many of them
were there by the early thirteenth century or even before."

But how much of this involved the construction of new bridges is
uncertain:

"it is highly likely that some of the many bridges standing in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries had been constructed by the late
eleventh century, but we do not know how many bridges this was."

Where more information is available, Harrison provides some details and
links bridges to broader history.

"By the late Saxon period we can trace what was probably then
the main road from London to the north through Nottingham
and Doncaster. Domesday Book refers to a section of it as the
road towards York in Nottinghamshire. It passed through Blyth
and Doncaster on its way to York. This section of the road
may already have been in use in 868 when the Danes, based in
York, seized Nottingham. Here there was a ford of the Trent.
Just over fifty years later the importance of the route was firmly
established by the construction of the bridge which channelled
north-south traffic to this key crossing. It was by far the
most important crossing of the Trent in the eleventh century.
William the Conqueror used this road when passing to and from
the north on his major campaigns in 1068 and in the spring and
autumn of 1069."

The 500 years after 1250 were a period of relative stability.

"In the eighteenth century, and especially after 1760, the
situation changed again. New bridges were erected at many sites.
The remaining ferries on secondary roads were replaced by bridges.
This was the second great age of bridge construction, which
has lasted to the present day. Nevertheless, the main river
crossings were still, with few exceptions, the same as they had
been in the middle ages."

Part II turns to bridge structures. Harrison begins with the threats
faced by bridges, most notably from extreme floods. The basic
construction options were timber, stone and timber, or arched stone;
evidence for these comes from illustrations, written descriptions,
archaeology, and inspection of surviving bridges.

Harrison gives a history of bridge engineering: early timber deck bridges
and causeways, the introduction of vaulted stone bridges, the use of
coffer dams in construction, developments in foundations and arches,
and so forth. He also looks at regional variations:

"during the period from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries
there were opposing tendencies in different parts of the country.
Most lowland bridges in the south and Midlands remained of similar
design and construction for centuries. Elsewhere medieval masons
made significant advances: the principal were the ability, first,
to devise foundations for even the most difficult conditions;
and secondly, to erect very big arches, and to recognize the
value of and to construct large segmental arches."

It has been argued that medieval bridges were of low quality and poorly
maintained, but Harrison weighs the overall evidence differently:

"For the most part, by the end of the middle ages bridges were
well built, substantial structures. Routine maintenance and
repair was common. When bridges were out of repair they often
remained useable, and when part of them collapsed they could be
patched up. If the damage was very serious, temporary bridges
could be erected until rebuilding had taken place."

Part III looks at the funding of bridge construction and upkeep.
Records of costs are better for the later period, but even in earlier
periods substantial resources were devoted to bridges. Funding came
from bridgework obligations, charitable donations and tolls; by 1900
county councils had mostly taken over responsibility for bridges, but

"at the beginning of the motor-car age bridges were still being
repaired by landowners who had inherited a liability almost a
thousand years old, or from funds from bridge estates which had
been established almost as long".

The Bridges of Medieval England includes sixteen pages of black and
white photographs of bridges. It assumes a basic familiarity with English
history and with architectural terms such as "ashlar", "voussoir", and
"soffit". It also gives short quotations in Latin without translation.
But mostly it is more accessible, offering an appealing integration of
history, architecture, engineering, and human geography.